The Responsible 21st Century Teacher

David Jakes asked the question back in 2006, "...can you be a good teacher without using technology?" in his post On Being Good. After numerous recent posts about professional learning with regard to technology (Will Richardson's , Ryan Bretag's, etc.) David's question keeps coming back to me.

As we all know, there are those out there who say things to the effect of "You should be blogging in your classroom!", "You are blowing it if you're not using Google Docs.", etc. In our district, we are trying very hard to pull away from looking at educational technology as a collection of tools and redirecting people's vision of educational technology as a way to serve learning and teaching goals. If someone comes to me and says "I want my students to blog" my first question will always be "Why?" I have almost as many people wanting to use technology to no purpose as I do people who won't investigate technology as a resource.

And that's where my answer to David's question comes in. The root of the matter is that every responsible, professional teacher in the 21st century must investigate available resources that will serve his or her students. We have truly remarkable teachers in our district; it is the responsibility of each of those remarkable teachers to continue their learning, to seek ways to better meet their goals or accomplish goals that were impossible before. They may or may not find anything but the search is critical.

Flipping out!!

Have you heard of the Flip video camera? Neither had I until the week before Christmas. Then, days later, my husband and I received one for Christmas and it seems to be taking the world (at least MY world) by storm! I returned to work after the Winter Break to the entry Caught on Video from Bob Sprankle on TechLearning.com about the Flip and his insightful vision for its use. So, what's so beautiful about the Flip?

1) It's so easy, even a child can use it (as you can see, my 2-year old niece is a master!)

2) It's affordable- approximately $100-$150, give or take, depending on recording time (30-60 minutes), etc. You could buy a classroom set for the price of one camcorder.

3) It's easy to download - "flip" out the self contained USB and plug it in. It appears as a drive and, generally, you just pull off your .avi file.

4) It has a self-contained microphone that picks up audio pretty well.

5) It's compact - about the size of my point and shoot camera.

For all of these reasons, I feel like this is a tool, with the cooperation of the budget-holders in my building, that could be in the hands of students and teachers in a matter of minutes! A tool that could impact and facilitate assessment, storytelling, evidence gathering, and on and on and on.
So, THAT's why I'm ready to FLIP out!!

NSDC Reflections: Resources

Another beautiful thing about attending a conference full of staff developers is that they are so interested in your continued learning. Many made references to and suggested books to read. If any of you have a spontaneous review of these works or suggestions as to what to read first, let me know!


Books:

• Taking the Lead: New Roles for Teachers and School-Based Coaches, Joellen Killion & Cindy Harrison
• Professional Learning Communities at Work: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement, Richard Dufour and Robert E. Eaker
• Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom, Larry Cuban
• The Way We Never Were, Stephanie Coontz

Online Resources:

• Partnership for 21st Century Skills: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
• Systems Thinking in Schools: www.watersfoundation.org/

NSCD Reflections: A Whole New Mind Book Talk

The book talk about Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind, was very interesting; not just because I truly enjoyed the book but because it let me really see what an insightful group of educators I was with at the NSDC conference. We did several activities (mostly from the portfolio sections of the book) that promoted great discussions and were led by three great facilitators. I'm not going to summarize the book here; while I don't agree with everything in the book (very Amero-centric and some consider it classist) I recommend it for reading and you can see a summary here.

So, what do I do now? That's what I kept asking people in our discussion groups. I get it. I buy into it. So what do I do? The administrative team at my school read it. Are they going to do anything about it? Maybe, maybe not. I kept asking for answers at our tables. Then, during the last table discussion of the session someone helped me realize that I probably shouldn't be looking for a set plan (that would be very "left-brained" of me!). I also realized that, in my area of educational technology, maybe I can weave this in my own curriculum; I work with everyone in my building...why don't I do something about it?

So, what do I do now? Here's my current thought. I heard a lot about professional learning communities during the NSDC conference. Why not a PLC about infusing right-brained thinking into the curriculum? Educational technology can facilitate a lot of this thinking...not all but a lot. I might be making a call out to my colleagues to see if anyone else wants to investigate this.

Stay tuned... if this flies, you'll see a lot more about it here! Maybe we'll have a "Whole New PLC" that could impact our whole educational environment.

NSDC Reflections: Instructional Technology Coaching for 21st Century Teachers and Learners

Dr. Jan Streich and several Instructional Technology Resource Teachers (ITRTs) from Spotsylvania, VA shared how they've implemented the Virginia mandate of an ITRT for every 1000 students. They're not saying they have it all figured out but they sure have done their research and they certainly had a lot of good advice/resources to offer. A few highlights:

• ITRTs are proven teacher leaders, not "techies", and continue to be teachers leaders, members of curricular teams.
• ITRTs are placed in each building in the district, they set up goals with the school principal and sign a contract as to what objectives they are trying to achieve and activities and programs of staff development and technology implementation they are responsible for. Having the contract helps make achievement more measurable, holds both parties responsible for providing what they've promised, and helps schools stay focused.
• ITRTs walk with teachers as they move toward implementing 21st century tools. Classroom teachers are responsible for content; the ITRT starts off with the technology and eventually moves the teachers toward independence.
• Curricular goals and student learning objectives drive instructional technology decision making.
• ITRTs are versed in the schools' curricular maps so they can anticipate when units/topics are coming up and address potential services/enhancements ahead of time so that appropriate planning and implementation can take place.
• Data-driven decision making is used. Data is everywhere in this project: test scores, record of ITRTs activities/time, teacher work time, etc. They are building databases of activities, resources, documentations, lesson plans, etc.

I was quite impressed with this team and, in particular, their director Dr. Jan Streich. There appears to be an impressive amount of thought and planning in this implementation. They admit they are not perfect and they don't have all the answers (which I admire) but I really think they could serve as a model for many school districts.